What went wrong?

Well, it's complicated, but this is the quick explanation (as covered on 60 Minutes). (And if you want a longer, more detailed explanation that's still easy for a novice, check out "The Giant Pool of Money" and the "Another Frightening Show About the Economy" episodes of This American Life, one of my very fav shows in any format.) So, people were trying to create "safe bets" out of thin air using vastly overvalued mortgages. And now it's all tumbling down around us . . . But in truth, I suspect this is just the first brick to fall in the entire, overextended American economy . . . Maybe that should read "The entire, overextended world economy," but it's just too scary to think that big right now.